2022 PD Retreat: Taking Action to Understand MRFA 2025 Plan

At this year’s annual MRFA PD Retreat, April 26&27,  there are a number of opportunities for faculty members to take a deeper dive towards increasing their understanding of the major goals of the MRFA 2025 Plan.  In taking this deeper look, faculty are acknowledging that they can take an active role in helping deliver on the goals, interventions, and mandate of this plan.  

MRFA 2025 is both a result of observations of what is happening in society at-large and a reflection of what is actually happening in our own MRU work-culture microcosm.  This plan has goals and actions that are intended to transform our Association over the next 4 years and long into the future.  MRFA 2025 is a promise to positively engage in creating an environment where ALL MRFA members feel heard, feel valued and acknowledge that they are treated in a fair and nonbiased manner in all that they do on campus. 

To gain a deeper understanding of the issues and the plan, here is how you can learn more:

Tuesday, April 26, 10:30 – 11:20 (Session 1)  – Join MRFA President Lee Easton, MRFA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer Milena Radzikowska and Facilitator Karen Pheasant Neganigwane engage in round table discussions to highlight what has already been initiated, and in some instances completed, and to talk about what is still yet to do to make our work culture the inclusive and welcoming one that the plan aims to create.  

Tuesday, April 26, 2:00pm – 3:20pm (Session 4) – Join Karen Pheasant Neganigwane as she distinguishes and considers how Indigenous pedagogical approaches can be introduced and embraced within standardized western pedagogical methods. At the heart of Indigenous pedagogy is the key component of relationality, whether to land, water, or air, to the seen or unseen. Within the storytelling format of this session, Karen will share beliefs, philosophies, and present Indigenous conceptions for educators to critically engage for pragmatic considerations for one’s own journey in navigating how to bring Indigenous credence to their own pedagogical approaches. Included in this presentation will be a preliminary overview to assessment consideration, experiential learning and bringing ceremony into the classroom/workplace

Wednesday, April 27, 11:00 – 11:50am (Session 6) – Join members of MRFA’s Diversity and Equity Committee for a panel discussion on ways that faculty members engage in invisible labour, and the various ways that institutional structures actively invisibilize labour.  Through the session, the panelists will encourage participants to consider where they and their colleagues may be performing invisible labour and invisibilized labour, and the actions they can take to create a more equitable workplace